Yesterday, we talked about creating goal setting worksheets and using major milestones (yearly, quarterly, monthly, etc…) to set meaningful goals and objectives.
I always begin this process by taking a look at (and revising) my 5 Year Plan. This is where I let my creative mind run free to envision exactly the kind of life I want to live. If you are an entrepreneur (or plan to be), I am guessing you are a bit of a daydreamer already – or you would be content with a regular 9-to-5 job with a steady paycheck and benefits.
So, think of this stage as a chance to harness what your mind likes to do any way!
I can’t stress enough how powerful this part of the process can be. I can say this with utmost confidence because I have experienced it first hand – and am amazed at how much it has shaped how my life looks today.
Here’s One Example:
In March 2007, I sat wrote an essay called “The Perfect Day.” In it, I wrote out exactly how my daily life looked in my ideal future. I have always dreamed of living on 20 acres and having my “boys” (my horses) at home. So, I wrote a very detailed description of how I found a beautiful piece of land and built a home and barn on it.
I also wrote about how I had the freedom to spend my days doing work I loved – interspersed with working with the horses, gardening/landscape design, and basically enjoying life:
“It was a lot of working getting to this point, but I am so happy that I spent the time building multiple streams of income centered mainly around my love for writing and landscape plants. Now, I have the flexibility to create my own work schedule and live life on my own terms.”
I don’t want to bore you to tears – but want to mention that this essay was detailed to the point of describing how each day started with a fresh pot of coffee (which I was able to enjoy without rushing – no commute or official start time) and the welcoming smells of well-kept stable (wonderful, but only if you are into that kind of thing! 
).
The point is that this was one of those rare moments where the vision I had was so crystal clear I could almost feel it – and clarity at this stage is the key.
I then went on to use the exact same milestones I described in yesterday’s post – when I wanted to buy the land, the house I wanted to build, other financial matters I needed to address first, etc…
At the time, I was working full-time as a Regional Sales Manager for a finance company – a job I really loved, but it required a lot of overnight travel and was not at all conducive to the image I had in my mind. Yet, I had zero plans to leave because I loved the people I worked with and thoroughly enjoyed what I was doing.
So, I figured “A Perfect Day” was a vision for my distant future – and went back to living my life.
What happened in the next 12 months was pretty astounding.
In July 2007, I came across a beautiful 20 acre parcel (exactly the size I always envisioned) and decided within … oh, 3 minutes… it was “the one.” I had always planned to buy the land, pay it off - then build. I really liked where I lived and wasn’t excited to sell with all the rumblings going on in the real estate market at that time.
Well… long story short – the bank wasn’t having the whole “buy raw land and build on it later” concept – so we worked out a construction loan which required the residence be built within 24 months… so I put my current house on the market thinking it would take 8-9 months to sell (which is what my Realtor predicted).
It took 3 days.
It actually sold before I had closed on the new property – and long before we ever broke ground. (Don’t even get me started on trying to rent a place to live with 3 dogs… ).
On March 1, 2008, I moved to my new property – and brought Casey and Anton home by late Spring:
(Can you tell they really like it here?)
This isn’t to suggest everything is perfect – or at all easy. (In fact, there have been times I could have just as easily titled this post “Be Careful What You Wish For” ).
Kidding aside, there was a little snafu in the financial markets during this time period (perhaps you heard about it? ) that dramatically impacted my job. As a result, I decided to re-find my legs as a full-time entrepreneur sooner than expected. So, I am still very much in the building stage of creating those multiple streams of income and creating a solid foundation for the future I want to live.
However, this experience (and several others like it) have shown me that if you can clearly formulate what it is you want to accomplish in life – you can set the wheels in motion to make it happen.
Before you set any specific goals for 2010, take some time and really think about WHY you want to accomplish those things on your list. Having a specific vision for the future you want to create will impart more meaning and add a greater sense of urgency to what you need to do TODAY to start making it happen.
Til Next Time,
PS Need some help developing your own “Perfect Day?” If so, Write It Down, Make It Happen: Knowing What You Want And Getting It
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Your posting today brings up so many important points!
We can sit on a swirling stool, crankin’ our elbow at the local watering hole and TALK about what we want to do in life and where we want to be – knowing that the fellow next to us is deaf in one ear and can’t hear out of the other (and even if he could someone’s playing “Live Like You Were Dying” again on the jukebox so loud he couldn’t hear us anyway) OR we can make a plan and take action to bring those goals and dreams to fruition.
Simply talking about our plans is never enough. In fact, I’ve always believed it’s better to NOT talk about what we plan to do but wait until we’ve done it to share it with others!
Your posting, your real-world experience, demonstrates how writing down what we want to do and how we envision enjoying our days during this brief life – really does lead us one step closer to making it happen.
We give our attention to, expend our energy on, and utilize our time doing what is most important to us. Everyone does. If we stop to take a moment to think about where our 24 hours go – and what we do with that 24 hours – I am certain we can find time in there to write down our plan of action.
And in the midst of all this, I think of that saying, “If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans.”
But it’s much better and there’s clearly more joy in setting wonderful goals and working towards bringing those dreams to life (even if portions of them change midstream because of life’s unexpected storms) than lounging like a lizard all day staring at someone else’s reality on TV or wasting the day surfing the net where there is no sun to warm us and no ocean water to wake us!
Envision it. Write it down. Take steps that lead toward it.
Pray.
Thanks Trish for (still) another enlightening blog!
What a fantastic story and lesson. A long time ago I wrote down what my perfect day would be like (now I have to find that piece of paper among the clutter LOL) but now more than ever I think I need to follow some of the steps you recommend.
Casey and Anton are gorgeous! I want to come visit *wink*
Just now trying to catch up on blogs since we just returned from Jamaica on Saturday and this post really spoke to me.